
482 THE INSECT WORLD. 
stabulary, day and night, without holidays or repose, protecting 
our fields. They never touch the smallest thing. They are 
occupied entirely in arresting thieves, and they desire no salary 
but the body of the thief himself.” But ignorance destroys these 
useful hunters. Children, seduced by the richness of the elytra 
of the Carabici, amuse themselves in catching these vigilant 
protectors of our farms, without knowing the bad effect of whas 
they are doing. Fortunately, education 1s spreading little by 
little in the country; the farmers begin to be awakened to their 
true interests, and to know how to distinguish the useful animals 
which it behoves them to preserve in their fields for the safeguard 
of their crops. In some places in France they have already made 
attempts to introduce the Carabici and the Cicindelete into gar- 
dens, and they have found them succeed very well. 
The true Carabi are to be known by their oval convex body, 
their long antennz, and elegantly carved thorax. They are, in 
general, of more massive forms than the Cicindelete, which com- 
pose a kindred family. The latter form, in some sort, the van- 
guard and the light troops; the others, the heavy battalions. 
The Carabi coming out in general at night, or at least at twilight, © 
and keeping themselves hidden under stones during the day, it 
is not easy to observe their mancuvres. 
The Carabus auratus (Fig. 499), which abounds in fields and 
gardens on the Continent, may be considered as the type of this 
genus. It has elytra of a beautiful green, with three ribs, and 
the legs yellowish. When it is touched, it disgorges a black 
and acrid saliva, and ejects from the abdomen a corrosive liquid, of 
a disagreeable odour. It lives on the larvee of other insects. It | 
has been seen to attack even large insects, such as the cockchafer. 
In England and the environs of Paris, Curabus violaceous 
(Fig. 500), whose dress, of a sombre colour, 1s surrounded by shades | 
of red and violet, is met with. In the Pyrenees, many Carabi with 
metallic reflections are found, whose beautiful colours are the | 
delight of collectors; the Carabus splendens, the Carabus rutilans, | 
&c. But the most beautiful insects of this tribe come from | 
S‘heria and the north of China. Let us mention, for example, | 
the Carabus smaragdanus, of a beautiful grass-green ; the Carabus 
Vietinghovit, of a beautiful blue black, bordered with azure, with a) 
golden band, &c. | 

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